Friday, April 26, 2013

The Friday Four, Part 11

As an early anniversary gift, I got tickets for the two of us to go to last Friday's Rodney Atkins concert at the Knitting Factory. The Knitting Factory is not my favorite venue by any means, and the crowd seemed particularly, well, drunk that night. There's a spot on one side that's up off the main floor, but alcoholic drinks aren't allowed, so it's never crowded. We claimed the space along the railing, so we had a great view of the stage and only occasionally had to put up with people yelling and hollering behind us. (I ignored most of them, but the second time one girl yelled, "Take off your pants!" at Rodney, I turned around and gave her dirty look. Her companion apologized and they made a quick exit.)

And the sound! Besides being waaay too loud, the balance was totally screwed up for the two opening acts with way too much bass; you could barely hear the melody line. Luckily they got it fixed by the time Rodney came on stage.

Man, I sound like such a wet blanket.

Anyway, the first opening act was Tyler Farr. I'd never heard of him, but he had a fairly pleasant voice and did a decent job with just himself and a guitar. Josh Thompson was the second act. I really liked him when we saw him a couple of years back at the Spokane Arena, opening for Brad Paisley. (Gene and I even ran into him in the parking lot afterwards, but neither of us had a pen, so instead of an autograph in my boot I got a handshake. I'll never go to a concert without a Sharpie in my pocket again.) This time his performance just bugged me a bit. He kind of seemed somewhere else, not really into it. None of the band members interacted with each other, or the audience, really. And the sound problems were really distracting. I still like his music, though. Here's one of my favorites, called "Way Out Here." (Warning: it's pretty hardcore, unabashedly country music - steel guitar, trucks, guns, God, and the good ol' U. S. of A. - so if you don't like that kind of stuff, you may want to skip it...)

~3~

Rodney Atkins was who we really wanted to see, of course. We've been big fans of his music for years and this has been our first chance to see him live. For some reason, Spokane just doesn't get a whole lot of country music acts, which I think is just weird given our geographic location and demographics, especially the rural population in surrounding areas. Anyway, he's got an honest aw-shucks country boy vibe with a family man strain running through his music, like this song, which always makes me think of my kids and resolve to be a better example for them:

And this one is a call for an escape from the hectic pace of modern life and a return to the "back roads":

Sounds really tempting, doesn't it?

~4~

Meet my incredibly
intelligent and competent
little sister, Meredith. I
want to be like her
when I grow up.
(photo courtesy:
Meredith Hartley)

Last night, my little sis presented at the quarterly meeting of the Spokane Chapter of the American Society for Quality. She was asked to speak on the "generation gap": why the membership is aging and what can be done about it. Her main thesis was communication; lots of people are doing Quality without calling it Quality, or even recognizing that's what it is. Quality professionals must be able to discuss Quality principles in layman's terms, without the jargon and specialized tools of the trade, and to connect what people are already doing to those Quality principles. There's been such a shift in industries over the past couple of decades and if the professional quality societies can't adapt to include technology and entrepreneurs and cupcake shops, in addition to the manufacturing and engineering mega-firms, the membership attrition will continue.

Meredith is a pretty impressive person and I often go to her for her insights and advice. You should, too. Check out her business website at at Me2 Solutions. She also blogs about business and life at The Quality Girl. And about her family's insane food allergies at The Quality Girl Eats.